Google App Inventor

Create powerful Android apps the easy all-visual way with Google App Inventor using this book and eBook

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Book Details

ISBN 139781849692120

Paperback356 pages

About This Book

All the basics of App Inventor in plain English with lots of illustrations

Learn how apps get created with lots of simple, fun examples

By an author with over 100 books, who keeps it entertaining, informative, and memorable. You’ll be inventing apps from the first day.

Who This Book Is For

This book is perfect for people with little or no experience, not just Android developers. No matter your level of experience, you will find plenty of information that you can use to create powerful apps, apps that can be published on Android Market and other places.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Obtaining and Installing Google App Inventor

Getting a Google App Inventor Account

Time for action signing up for a Google Account

Google App Inventor on the Web

Time for action logging into App Inventor

Requirements for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Obtaining and installing Java

Installing Java on your computer

Installing App Inventor locally

Time for action installing App Inventor on Mac

Time for action installing App Inventor on GNU/Linux

Time for action installing App Inventor on Windows

Setting up and running the emulator

Time for action opening up the emulator

Finding and downloading drivers

Time for action connecting a Droid to Ubuntu

Time for action configuring our device

Summary

Chapter 2: Learning Components

Using App Inventor's web interface

Time for action creating a new project

Time for action downloading our projects

Time for action uploading source code

Time for action connecting our phone

Basic components

Time for action adding and configuring a button

Time for action follow the bouncing ball

Media components

Time for action shooting a photo

Time for action vibrating buttons

Animation components

Social components

Sensor components

Screen arrangement components

LEGO® MINDSTORMS® components

Other stuff

Not ready for prime time

Summary

Chapter 3: Playing with Blocks

The Blocks Editor

Time for action collapse and expand block groups

Time for action deleting unwanted blocks

Definition blocks

Time for action calculating the area of a circle using a function Design

What You Will Learn

Package apps, install them on your phone, share with friends, and publish them to Market and other places.

Design apps by choosing the right components and formatting the screens so that everything looks as good as it works!

Learn how the blocks click together and smoothly perform the tasks your app needs to accomplish, and understand which blocks do what.

Explore the advanced concepts of App Inventor, such as the ActivityStarter, which lets AI communicate with and manipulate other apps.

Create apps that email, text, tweet, use databases, find GPS coordinates, play games, and a great deal more!

In Detail

The number of mobile apps has grown exponentially in the last two years. If you want to join the crowd, Google’s App Inventor is the easiest and best tool for you to get started with. It is a tool to create Android phone apps and uses a graphical user interface, and drag and drop methods to create apps. It’s so simple that anyone can build an app.

Learn how Google App Inventor eliminates the mystery around programming. It is a visual language, where we simply drag and drop blocks (graphic elements representing blocks of code) in various combinations to give us applications that run on our phones or other Android-based devices. No programming background is required. Playing with blocks has never been more fun!

The emphasis is on creating apps that work and that you understand fully. The first part of the book gives you a sound foundation in the basics, and lots of tips on how to use App Inventor. The second part is all about creating complete apps ready for real world use. The book includes apps that communicate, use databases to remember, surf the Web and other networks, use GPS and various sensors on your phone, and let you write or play games.

Authors

Ralph Roberts

Ralph Roberts is a decorated Vietnam veteran and worked with NASA during the Apollo moon program. He built his first personal computer in 1976 and has been writing about them and on them since his first published article Down with Typewriters in 1978. He has written over 100 books along with thousands of articles and short stories. His bestsellers include the first U.S. book on computer viruses (which resulted in several appearances on national TV) and Classic Cooking with Coca-Cola®, a cookbook that has been in continuous print for the past 17 years and sold half a million copies.

Alerts & Offers

Series & Level

We understand your time is important. Uniquely amongst the major publishers, we seek to develop and publish the broadest range of learning and information products on each technology. Every Packt product delivers a specific learning pathway, broadly defined by the Series type. This structured approach enables you to select the pathway which best suits your knowledge level, learning style and task objectives.

Learning

As a new user, these step-by-step tutorial guides will give you all the practical skills necessary to become competent and efficient.

Beginner's Guide

Friendly, informal tutorials that provide a practical introduction using examples, activities, and challenges.

Essentials

Fast paced, concentrated introductions showing the quickest way to put the tool to work in the real world.

Cookbook

A collection of practical self-contained recipes that all users of the technology will find useful for building more powerful and reliable systems.

Blueprints

Guides you through the most common types of project you'll encounter, giving you end-to-end guidance on how to build your specific solution quickly and reliably.

Mastering

Take your skills to the next level with advanced tutorials that will give you confidence to master the tool's most powerful features.

Starting

Accessible to readers adopting the topic, these titles get you into the tool or technology so that you can become an effective user.

Progressing

Building on core skills you already have, these titles share solutions and expertise so you become a highly productive power user.